Tom Harris, also known as The Hill Country Gardener, is a Master Gardener certified by the State of Texas, a Master Pruner certified by the San Antonio Botanical Garden, and a founder and volunteer for the Gardening Volunteers of South Texas (GVST).

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

It’s time to start thinking about tool maintenance and getting them ready for winter storage. One of the first things you can do is to drain the gas out of the string trimmer, the shredder, the tiller, the lawn mower and any other gas-powered machine you have. Then start it up and run it until […]
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From my friend Gary Gruenhagen in Sierra Vista, Arizona. I couldn’t have said it better. “Finding Garden Niches for Your Plants The term “microclimate” is much used by gardeners. It usually is used to refer to small areas on a property that provide climatic conditions that differ from the regional climate zone. In a sense, […]
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Nowadays, you can get crape myrtles in almost any size you want/need, from about 12-15 inches to about 50 feet; and the colors today are beautiful. Anything from white to deep purple and. Deer will eat the young tree’s foliage, and the bucks will rub their horns on the young trees in the fall, so […]
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Last week I did a yard audit with Bonnie and Bill over in Comfort. They had lots of questions and I had lots of answers. They are really interesting people. Thanks, guys. Did another one this morning at a home where the family had built a memorial garden for one of the sons…zoysia grass, lots […]
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If you will be going to the nursery to buy some plants for your yard anytime soon, here are a couple of tips to help you get the biggest bang for your bucks. • Buy only the plants that you definitely plan to plant as soon as you get home. It’s not good to leave […]
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I just finished reading an article about genetically-modified-organisms (GMO). Many people evidently believe that this is something brand new and, therefore, deadly. Ain’t so! About 70% of what we have been eating for the last 20 years is/are GMOs, (so most of you were raised on it—can’t say it’s all bad then, can we). GMO […]
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In case you didn’t see it in the SA paper, there is a new law that kicked in last Sunday. It’s about lawns and home owners associations (HOA). In effect, it’s saying that the HOA can’t tell you what kind of plants to put in your yard. You may still have to meet other standards, […]
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Yep, it’s hot and dusty. The REAL August is now upon us and bearing down something fierce. It’s the hottest part of the year and is taking its toll on our plants. Fortunately, many of the plants we grow here can withstand the onslaught. We call them “native” plants. When you pull one of them […]
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The 2013 Annual Water Saver Landscape tour is coming up in Bexar County on October 5, 2013, 9 am to 3 pm. Yards are being sought to be on the tour this year. If you or one of you neighbors who lives in Bexar County would like to nominate yourself or them, contact GVST at […]
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If you have blackberries at your house and if they produced this year, it’s time now to remove the old canes (stems) to get ready for next year. Remove all the old canes that produced fruit this year clear back to the ground. New blooms and berries only form on new stems and they will […]
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